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Has the Glory Gone Out of Working In IT?
An anonymous reader writes to wonder if the glory has gone out of IT. One blogger remembered his first impression upon entering a profession in IT that made it seem like the place to be, with a new shiny around every corner. What experiences have others had? Has a more pervasive technical culture forced our IT gurus into obsolescence?
Glory in IT? If that was the case I'd get more women I think. I think any glory you thought there use to be is simply delusions on your part. People don't work in IT for the glory. People rarely do anything for glory.
The day we traded the guru individualist programmer doing arcane tweaks inspired by the architecture of the machine, for the team in India writing on spec using no memory or speed optimization whatsoever.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
Since when was IT prestigious? It once used to be the hot new industry where people made lots of money, but it was never 'sexy'. Lucrative, not glorious. And now it's not even that, so much.
Scientists point out problems, engineers fix them
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Just like the proud, self-made carpenter, who used to do everything himself by hand, has to install pre-fab kitchen's in a day these days (and never mind how it's done, just make sure that it's installed in a single day), yes, the 'glory' has gone out of IT for *most* (if not *all*) people in IT these days. It might still be a *fun* job, because you get to 'play' with computers all day, but most of the glory has been lost to 'professionalism'.
R&D and MIT media lab aside ( I wouldn't call that sort of thing IT even though there is some overlap)
When I hear IT I think of my corporate support staff.
As far as I am concerned there has never been any glory in that thankless job.
I mean how glorious can a job be where the only recognition you'll get is when you screw something up?
When you are good at your job in IT nobody notices you since the goal of most IT shops is to be transparent to the user....
The Glory of working in IT peaked with the release of the movie "Office Space."
Ken
When I was new, everything seemed new and shiny.
Now that I'm old, everything seems old and dull.
Paying taxes to buy civilization is like paying a hooker to buy love.
It was fun until...
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I've been hard-working member of an IT staff for a while now, and I do sometime feel as though all the glory has been sucked out of a "glory hole" of some sort.
We really should have a staff meeting about it. Firm action is clearly needed.
This is somewhat true, though it seems to me that much of the "problem" with IT these days stems from the continued inability for non-technical colleagues and management to understand exactly what the purpose of IT is.
It used to be that IT was much less micromanaged. "They do that computer stuff, and it seems to work most of the time, and when it isn't working we lose money, so it's good they keep it working." Now-a-days with folks being so metric-obsessed, it's harder to "just do your job". You gotta make sure to keep up with all your tickets, make extra tickets for everything from someone stopping by your desk, to peeing, so that the metric-OCDs can account for everything you do.
There's still some places where tech people can be tech people, but with a lot of companies going through the (seemingly) perpetual cycle of: "Our IT doesn't work, get us a dedicated IT staff" to "Man, those IT folks look overworked, they must be hard workers!" to (after the systems have been fixed and streamlined) "Those IT people never seem to be doing anything, let's lay them off and save some money" and back to "our IT doesn't work..." it can be hard to find a position where you *can* be a technology person without having to watch your back all the time.
Though (to continue the rant), I will agree that, in general, technology is in a bit of a boring slump, where "advances" are often simply marketing re-definitions of existing technology that's been "suped up". It's not like the late-80's through the 90's where interesting things were happening all around and there was always something neat coming out. These days tech is about evolution not revolution.
Also keep in mind, though, that the longer you're in IT, the more things will seem "old hat" to you. I think this is what the OP (and I) seem to be experiencing these days.
The glory is making something that people *want* to use, or it really honestly makes their life better, and they know it. I've done mostly back-end stuff throughout my career but I have seen email comments from users who have praised the system for making such-and-such job easier, or figuring out this big thing, or saving a lot of time, etc., and I can feel good that I had a hand in that, or I implemented that, etc.
My kids like playing with the apps on the iPhone, especially music making and drawing pictures. I can't say how many times I've been handed the phone with a picture and my daughter beaming and going "I made that!!", with obvious joy on her face. That made me happy, and I'd think the author of the program would be happy to know how much joy s/he brought.
That's glory right there. If you can make someone happy with what you do, honestly and truly, then it makes the TPS reports, status meetings, weekends and late night worth it.
Those arcane tweaks are still there because the guy left 8 years ago and NOBODY REMEMBERS HOW TO FIX IT.
"Whatever you do, just don't touch that code. It's been working that way since before I got here. We tried to change it once and it took us 6 days to get the wolverine back in the cage."
"Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
I've been in IT for 10 years now and so far I've contemplated suicide twice. I've watched my lunch break go from 1 hour to eat while you work. Taking a break now is stopping what you are doing here and go over there to explain to our accountant's cousin why she can't use Magic Jack with AOL. Keeping up with the latest and greatest technologies is a joke to everyone that's around you. Even though it's your job to understand this equipment and if we need to upgrade. All the other IT people you've met have an ego the size of VY Canis Majoris. Their life is so much better than yours even though when you hang out with them they can't afford anywhere you want to eat. Also usually their talent is watered down and forget having a conversation about anything other than computers. Finding a new job is a joke. Most online "job sites" are just phishing for resumes that have your social security number and other personal information. Any legitimate jobs have a line forming at the door of applicants. Those jobs are usually a start up that will be around until the owners' loan money runs out. If you ask if there is any room for advancement they feed you a line like "You're already on the top in that position." Meaning you are stuck where you are at until they go belly up. Any ideas your boss or whoever is over you comes up with is usually stupid. Cost cutting and other business BS has left you to complete projects that aren't going to work by impossible deadlines. You only come to work because their internet is a little faster than what you got at home. Working most of the time has cause you to lose touch with friends and some family. You find yourself like a zombie getting up everyday to go to work. You can't wait until the weekend but it takes more than 2 days to recuperate. You read this article on Slashdot and find an avenue to vent. Only to have that temporary escape rudely broken by the question "Hey dude, can you see why my PC be glitchen up?"
These days, I feel like a cabinet maker working in home depot. I have a bunch of skills that are not being utilized because the majority of the work happening (at least where I work anyways) has shifted from creating custom solutions to installing, maintaining, and supporting 3rd party applications. My job satisfaction is eroding. While I used to take pride in creating stable, elegant solutions to complicated problems, I now spend most of my time fighting with messy integrations.
Actually I'd like to be treated like the plumber. Nobody thinks the plumber broke their pipes (well, not unless he installed them in the first place), but they do know that he's the one who can fix them. And they know that if they try and be a cheapskate and not pay him his full rate, or if they stand there haranguing him about how bad a job he's doing, he'll pack up his toolkit and wave good-bye, leaving them standing there ankle-deep in... stuff they'd rather not think about, and their only option will be to call another plumber who'll have just as little tolerance for their games as the first one. Because the plumber knows that, no matter how important you think you are, there's always somebody else with a stopped-up sink who won't be such a pain.
That and both the customer and the plumber know that if the customer takes the plumber into court and complains about how the plumber didn't tell him he shouldn't dump tons of cut hair and congealed grease and crud down the drain and the plumber should've done something to keep that from causing a clog, the judge will fall out of his chair lauging, then dismiss the case with prejudice. And probably order the customer to pay the plumber's legal bills too, just to teach them not to file frivolous complaints.